December 4, 2008

AP seems to think so, in this report on a speech he gave last night at a dinner celebrating the anniversary of the "conservative" American Spectator magazine:

Alito made several joking references to Vice President-elect Joseph Biden... including Biden's withdrawal from the 1988 presidential campaign over plagiarizing parts of a speech from a British politician.

"To coin a phrase, in the spirit of the vice president-elect, you can't always get what you want, but you get what you need," Alito said, an imperfect rendering of a Rolling Stones lyric.

Then, he added, "Did someone say that before?"

A bit later in his talk... Alito said he was about to quote liberally from a magazine article. "In the spirit of the vice president-elect, I want to honor the copyright laws," Alito said.

"I understand, Judge, I am the only one standing between you and lunch, so I'll try to make this painless," he began, with some promise.

Mr. Biden then dived into a soliloquy on Judge Alito's failure to recuse himself from cases involving the Vanguard mutual fund company, which managed the judge's investments. After 2 minutes 50 seconds - short for the senator - Mr. Biden did appear to veer toward a question, but abandoned it to cite Judge Alito's membership in a conservative Princeton alumni group. Mr. Biden discoursed on that for a moment, then interrupted himself with an aside about his son who "ended up going to that other university, the University of Pennsylvania."

Judge Alito, who had been sitting without expression through Mr. Biden's musings, interrupted the senator midword, got out three sentences, then settled in for nearly 26 minutes more of Mr. Biden, with the senator doing most of the talking. With less than a minute to spare, Mr. Biden concluded, thanked Judge Alito for "being responsive," then said to Mr. Specter that "I want to note that for maybe the first time in history, Biden is 40 seconds under his time."

But I don't think it's necessary to infer that Alito's still pissed about that and getting back at the garrulous old VP-elect. We all make fun of Biden whenever we feel like it.

Alito is the only one of the pair who will make decisions that actually matter. Biden just collects his pay on the way to the next funeral while everyone in the church says a prayer for Obama's health.

I don't think it is fair to call it a grudge when Alito may resent the fact that The Senator From MBNA is an imbecile and proves he is an imbecile during your confirmation hearing but the imbecile gets a free pass from the MSM.

(1) The most intelligent thing ever said, ever, in the entire history of intelligent people, anywhere, saying intelligent things in a confessional, ever, is this, from “Seinfeld”:

PRIEST: Tell me your sins, my son.

JERRY: Well I should tell you that I'm Jewish.

PRIEST: That's no sin.

JERRY: Oh good. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about Dr. Whatley. I have a suspicion that he's converted to Judaism just for the jokes.

PRIEST: And this offends you as a Jewish person?

JERRY: No, it offends me as a comedian.

(2) Thinking of that, I was compelled by God, Himself, to create (1), supra, the red-hot instant I read that little bit of Associated Press-My-Hairy-Grapes pedantry about how Justice Alito’s allusion was “an imperfect rendering of a Rolling Stones lyric.”

Biden asked questions? So far as I could tell, at both the Roberts and Alito hearings, he contended himself by grinning like an idiot and hamming it up, monologuing like the supervillains mocked by Mr. Incredible.

Not that Biden is smart enough to be a supervillain. He has an incredibly high opinion of himself even though he's as obnoxious as Chuck Schumer and as dumb as Dick Durbin.

I remember that Vanguard case. It was unbelievably lame of Biden to make anything out of it and proved, yet again, that he is just a partisan hack ("Here you go Joe, we got crap for oppo research, but make the best of it")

Have you watched any of these confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sam Alito? Senators are given thirty minutes to question the guy: thirty minutes exactly. Senator Joe Biden’s question took 23 1/2 minutes. His question took 24 minutes. And Alito is smart. He’s brilliant. Do you know what he said?

I make it a rule not to enter a discussion with someone about whether Sarah Palin is smart or not until they admit that Biden is a moron. If they are, I know I'm dealing with a possibly good faith discussion partner. Kind of a litmus test. It's intellectually defensible - not necessarily correct - but intellectually defensible to believe both Biden and Palin are morons. It's just not defensible to believe Palin is but Biden isn't.

AlphaLiberal said..."Biden was probably just denying Alito the chance to recite the same canned talking points no matter the question"

That's so utterly disconnected from Alito's conduct at the hearings that one is forced to wonder if you even watched them. Indeed, the nature of the proceedings make such a strategy implausible. So I think you're doing your usual schtick here: you're playing the blowhard liar who makes up convenient canned talking points as a poor substitute for actual thought. Back your allegations up: You said points, plural, so I want at least two examples from you of "canned talking points" given by Alito in response to any Senator's questions.

As if you've ever backed up an argument. To keep up my solid record, solid as a mighty oak:

The hearings were less illuminating than one might have hoped. Democratic senators often seemed more interested in attacking the nominee -- sometimes scurrilously -- than in probing what sort of a justice he would be. Even when they tried, their questioning was often so ineffectual as to elicit little useful information. Republican senators, meanwhile, acted more as fatuous counsels for the defense than as sober evaluators of a nominee to serve on the Supreme Court. On both sides, pious, meandering speeches outnumbered thoughtful questions. And the nominee himself was careful, as most nominees are, not to give much away. The result is that Americans don't know all that much more about Judge Alito than they did before.

And there were the fake waterworks from his wife in response to a Linsey Graham setup.

AlphaLiberal said..."As if you've ever backed up an argument. To keep up my solid record, solid as a mighty oak"

Well, your lame attempt at a counterpoint is certainly consistent with your record: asked to cite an example of Alito falling back on canned talking points, you entirely fail to do so, instead presenting a secondary source that talks about something else entirely. The transcript of the hearings is readily available, and since you're hard of comprehension - about as much brains as a "mighty oak," to be sure - I'll repeat: I want at least two examples from you of 'canned talking points' given by Alito in response to any Senator's questions. If your response fails to include a direct quotation from the transcript backed up by a link, your response is a failure.

AlphaLiberal said... "The quote says he shed no light. That's the result of repeating canned talking points and evading questions."

In other words, you can't offer a single example from several days' worth of transcripts to back up your claim. If the technique you allege were remotely prevalent, the transcript would be repleat with examples, but you can't find any. As usual, and as I expected, you're revealed as an insubstantial liar, making noise for attention but without anything to back it up. No wonder you like Biden - with your attitude, you could be Biden!

Biden? From corporate friendly Delaware, Joe biden? MBNA's man in the Senate? The one who opposes bankruptcy reform (that most other Dems including Obama supported) because his corporate masters demanded it? The one's who's son was on MBNA's payroll as a highly paid 'consultant' when the reform bill was before Congress? The one who deosn't know his favorite restaurant closed thirty years ago? That Joe Biden?

Let's give Biden a little credit here. He proposed and passed the RAVE Act that saved civilization from crappy music and stinking stinkers that listened to that music, and doing drugs at the same time.

But Justin, Dear, I am no troll, and certainly not because you dislike my comments. I have been here since 2004, pretty much like you, my friend.

You don't troll relentlessly, like Lucky, but you do troll. And it has nothing to do with me disliking your comments. In fact, I thought your response to Lucky upthread was awesome. Time served doesn't get you out of it either. Some trolls have been around longer than both of us. :)

BTW - and seriously - how's that first home you bought last year?

The house is great. Thanks for asking. We put on a new roof two days before Hurricane Ike. After Ike we had to remove a tree that almost fell on the new roof. It's definintely more expensive to own a home than to rent an apartment, but I wouldn't go back for anything.

I don't mean to challenge your forensic skills, but I have seen more than one commenter here use the id "Justin". That you chose one of my old comments and not another Justin shows either stellar sleuthing or good luck.